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Totalitarian domination as a form of government is new, in that it bases itself un loneliness on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is among the most radical and desperate experiences of men. Many people have amnesia regarding the fact that a mere few years ago, we were forced to include ourselves in our homes, banned from part in social activities in attending communal gatherings, and even told to maintain distance from others when out in public or in our own homes.
What was the intention of this dream social isolation? Was it to protect us? Or is there a more nefarious reason behind the social distancing and isolation we were forced to endure. In this video, we explained how tyrant and totalitarian in the twentieth century, and into the modern day have attempted to isolate and atom individuals in order to make them easier to control In his book community and power, Robert N writes.
The genius of totalitarian leadership lies in its profound awareness that human personality cannot tolerate moral isolation. It lies further in its knowledge that absolute and relentless power will be acceptable only when it comes to seem the only available form of community. Man has social needs that must be fulfilled as a basis for psychological health. Throughout most of history, These needs have been satisfied at a tribal or local level.
For hundreds of thousands of years are hunter gather ancestors lived in small tight knit tribes. And each member's sense of self was deeply intertwined with the group. This tribal identity provided our ancestors with an unwavering sense of social belonging.
History teaches that in the beginning, the individual did not exist as an independent entity, In the early state, there is a fusion of the individual with the group, brought the psychologist, Eric Norman in the origins and history of consciousness.
In medieval society, Man started to emerge as an independent individual, yet his social need, were still satisfied through the diverse community associations that flourished in towns and villages, such as markets, guild local assemblies, town councils, commune, churches, f turn, charities, mona, universities, and the primal community of the family. This multitude of community associations provided medieval man with a strong sense of social belonging that not only bolstered his psychological
health. But also his courage and will to resist external powers, which posed a threat to his social groups.
Only in their social inter, are men given to resist to the tyranny that always threatens to arise out of any political government, democratic or other, wrote Robert and N, Another benefit of the diverse array of community associations that existed in the middle ages is that each had authority figures who, as a result of superior character, knowledge and ability served as role models, maintained communal order and mediated disagreements among members, This
proliferation of authority figures created a web of decentralized authority that safeguard societies from being overtake by any single centralized power or as N continues. We are prone to see the advance of power in the modern world as a consequence of that dim of individual freedom but a more useful way would be to see it in terms of the retreat of authority in many areas of society within which human beings commonly find roots in a sense of the larger whole.
It is power, not authority, that seeks homo, segmentation, and the manipulated articulation of parts by hi of administrators and it is the competition of authorities within society at large that above most things I can think of keeps a society mobile and free. Multiply your associations and be free, wrote the great p on.
The modern, state came into existence in the seventeenth century and 1 of the primary trends that accompanied its development was the destruction of traditional community associations.
The state defined by its bureaucratic form of organization and a stability that extends beyond any individual ruler, has from its inception imposed itself as the intermediary regulator or manager of almost all forms of social organization and interaction, As a few examples with the birth of the modern state, guild that regulated trade and maintained quality standards were replaced by government regulatory bodies.
Charitable and private hospitals and institutions for the sick and disabled were replaced by institutions of the welfare state. Private schools and educational institutions were replaced by state run public schools, and the defense provided by merchant leagues was replaced by enormous, state militaries.
In absorbing or destroying the medieval forms of community, the modern state spread its tentacles throughout society and methodically built up what is now an all encompassing political community, or as N explains, The structure of political power which came into being 3 centuries ago on the basis of its era ratification of medieval forms of community has remained. Has indeed become ever more destructive of the contents of new forms of community.
Knowing the basic psychological truth that life apart from some sense of membership in a larger order is into for most people. The leaders of the total state thus direct their energies not just to the destruction of the old order, but to the manufacture of the new.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many intellectual assisted the state's efforts to dismantle traditional community Associations by arguing that institute such as the church and the family were outdated, obsolete and oppressive. Friedrich Nietzsche attacked the community of the Christian church, and calling at the greatest of all imaginable corruption.
Herbert Marcus, a member of the Frankfurt school of critical theory joined the growing voices of twentieth century radical feminism by arguing that the community of the family was a patriarch system of oppression. What motivated these modern icon class was the idea that traditional communities and institutions limited man's freedom to develop in an autonomous manner. Or as Ross that explains.
As social institutions, these community associations would be attacked as inhumane, irrational, patriarch, and tyra as sources of clinical and economic power, they would be dismissed as outdated and inefficient, In place of a web of overlapping communities and competing authorities, the liberal west set out to build a society of self sufficient, liberated individuals.
What these intellectual icon class did not foresee is that most people are not self sufficient or mentally strong enough to embrace freedom when they lack community involvement in a sense of social belonging. The dismantling of traditional community associations has left many people lacking the social ties that give their life meaning and joy. Furthermore, this so called liberation from the communal bonds of the past, left many individuals socially isolated,
anxious. Alienate and lacking in purpose. This social atom admiration was taken to an extreme in the first few years of the 20 twenties, when individuals, most of whom already lacked a strong sense of community, were forced to isolate to a degree never before experienced society wide. History shows that when social optimization and isolation reach unnatural levels, it tends to trigger the phenomenon of ana.
The law of an anti Formulated by the pre philosopher her colitis states that when an individual or society is too 1 sided or excessive in some important manner, a counter reaction to the opposite extreme will sooner or later occur. In accordance with this law, extreme social atom optimization triggers a swing to its opposite, extreme collect.
And as most traditional forms of community have been destroyed, in the modern day, this dream collect activism plays out in the political realm as individuals try to fulfill their needs for community by becoming fe supporters and participants of the political community of the state or as Ross dot at writes? Man is a social being and his desire for community will not be denied. And if he can't find that community on a human scale, then he'll look for it on an inhuman scale.
In the total community of the total state. That modern man in his social isolation is seeking to sat his yearning for community by forming a deep emotional and psychological bond with the political community of the state, is apparent when we look at the case histories of twentieth century totalitarian ism.
In her book, the origins of totalitarian ism, Hannah Rent notes the intimate connection between the social isolation that followed the breakdown of the traditional forms of community, In the rise of twentieth century totalitarian ism as she wrote, what prepares men for totalitarian domination in the non totalitarian world is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become
an everyday experience of the ever growing masses of our century. Hitler recognized that a lack of community creates a void of isolation, which can be filled by a strong leader in a strong state. Hence why, when in power, he and c opted independent associations including trade unions, youth groups, and other cultural organizations and replaced local town hall meetings with mass political meetings.
In mind comp, Hitler wrote that, The mass meeting is necessary if only for the reason that in it, the individual who in becoming an adhere of a new movement, feels lonely and is easily seized with the fear of being alone receives for the first time the picture of a great community, something that has a strengthening effect upon most people.
In a similar manner, the attraction which communism held to millions of people in the twentieth century and continues to hold for many today has less to do with its ideology than with the sense of community it offers its adherence. Or as Nes explains, To a large number of human beings, marxism offers status, belonging membership and a coherent moral perspective, of what matter and relevance are the empirical and logical mutations made by a host of critics as
against to this... Spiritual properties that marks offers to millions. If the cancer growth of the modern state as well as fascism, communism and totalitarian, are products of the socially atom masses misguided search for community, than what western societies desperately need is a revival of smaller scale community associations or as N writes? It is not the revival of old communities that the book in a sense plead for. It is the establishment of new forms.
Forms which are relevant to contemporary life and thought. Hence the appeal for what I call a new lac fair, 1 within which groups, associations and communities would prosper in which would be by their very vitality, effective barriers to further spread of unitary centralized, political power. A diverse multitude of autonomous social groups and associations helps the individual maximize his potential by providing the communal support and security that is needed for an individual to face up to
the challenges of life. Furthermore, it is usually only when man feels sick cure within a community that he will risk the dangerous task of ind himself and cultivating his idiosyncratic side, No conception of individuality is adequate that does not take into consideration the Myriad ties, which normally bind the individual to others from birth to death explains N or as Carl Young writes.
Ind infatuation is only possible with people through people, You must realize that you are a link in a chain that you are not an electron suspended somewhere in space or aim drifting through the cosmos. If modern man continues to be socially isolated and alienate and allows the state to separate and distance him from others.
That not only will ind remain out of his reach, but he will continue to search for community in the total state Regarding the man whose life is meaningless due to a lack of social connections, Carl young wrote that, he is already on the road to state slavery, and without knowing or wanting it has become its prose or as N concludes. Totalitarian is an ideology of nihilism. But nihilism is not enough. No powerful social movement can be explained in negative terms alone.
There is always the positive goal, We should miss the essence of the total state if we did not see in it elements that are profoundly affirmative. The ex extraordinary accomplishments of totalitarian in the twentieth century would be inexplicable were it not for the immense, burning appeal, it exert upon masses of individuals who have lost or had taken away, there accustomed to roots of membership and belief.
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